Protecting the environment and world peace were the messages running through the ceremony in a city renowned for its polluted waters, poverty and violent crime.
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The cauldron in central Rio is expected to be lit by a runner after the opening ceremony is finished, Howe said.
The honour of lighting the Olympic flame went to Brazilian marathoner Vanderlei Cordeiro de Lima.
The 10 athletes who make up the Refugee team received massive cheers and applause when they entered the stadium, just ahead of the host country’s delegation.
Flag bearer Rose Lokonyen Nathike of the Refugee Olympic Team proudly marches during the opening ceremony.
U.S. Olympic team flag bearer Michael Phelps is not going to stay for the duration of Friday night’s opening ceremony, as nearly every other athlete will, but instead will be whisked out by NBC staffers and driven back to the Olympic Village, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Fireworks formed the word “Rio” in the skies.
The recently-created team of worldwide refugees marched under the flag of the Olympics in the opening ceremony of the 2016 Rio Games held at the Maracana Stadium in Brazil on Friday, August 5 (Saturday morning, Manila time).
“It’s a cultural ceremony that requires deep levels of understanding, with numerous camera angles and our commentary laid over it. We think it’s important to give it the proper context”.
Before the show, in a video broadcast inside the 78,000-seat Maracana Stadium, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said the games “celebrate the best of humanity” and appealed for an Olympic truce, calling on “all warring parties to lay down their weapons” during the two weeks of sporting achievement.
“It’s a great honor”, Ushiro said before the ceremony. In one of the world’s most unequal societies, the spectacle celebrated the culture of the favelas, the slums that hang vertiginously above the renowned beaches of Rio and ring the Maracana.
The indigenous population’s first encounter with foreigners was next up, with Europe’s arrival, the 400-year exploitation of African slaves and the influx of Asians and the Middle-Easterns all exhibited with the use of hundreds of acrobats and performers.
More than 80,000 police and security staff are being used in Rio – double the amount used for the London Olympics in 2012.
Gisele Bundchen takes part in the opening ceremony. Everyone performed for free.
Having won the Olympics in 2009 during an economic boom, Brazil since slipped into its worst recession in decades and a political crisis that has deeply divided the nation of 200 million people.
Michel Temer, a 75-year-old law professor, became acting president after the Senate voted in favour of launching an impeachment trial against Rousseff, suspending her. A total of 206 nations displayed their strength for the games.
Despite being not very Brazilian at all, Dame Judi Dench narrated a section about deforestation and climate change.
It started with the beginning of life itself in Brazil, and the population that formed in the vast forests and built their communal huts, the ocas. When they sprout, they will be planted in a Rio park.
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“They’re talking about slavery?”
